Baracara was founded as a

maroon Maroon ( US/ UK , Australia ) is a brownish crimson color that takes its name from the French word ''marron'', or chestnut. "Marron" is also one of the French translations for "brown". According to multiple dictionaries, there are var ...

community in the

East Berbice-Corentyne East Berbice-Corentyne (Region 6) is one of ten regions in Guyana covering the whole of the east of the country. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the north, the Nickerie District and Sipaliwini District of Suriname to the east, Brazil to the sou ...

Region of

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

, located on the

Canje River The Canje River (sometimes referred to as Canje Creek), located in northeastern Guyana, is the main tributary of the Berbice River. It runs roughly parallel to the Atlantic Ocean coast in East Berbice-Corentyne, region 6. The settlement of Bar ...

. The community has also been called New Ground Village or Wel te Vreeden. Baracara is 20 miles west of

Corriverton Corriverton is the most easterly town in Guyana. It lies at the mouth of the Corentyne River, opposite Nieuw Nickerie, Suriname, to which it is linked by ferry from South Drain. Corriverton is located about 195 mi/313 km from Georget ...

and just north of the

Torani Canal The Torani Canal in northeastern Guyana serves to move water from the Berbice River into the Canje River. It was to serve as irrigation for the sugar industry, and subsequently the rice industry. The canal is 14 miles long. The Berbice River inle ...

's connection to the Canje River.

Overview

Baracara is the only maroon village in Guyana. A group of escaped slaves settled in Baracara in the early 19th century, and occupied both the east and west banks of the river. The demographics are mostly

Afro-Guyanese Afro-Guyanese are generally descended from the enslaved people brought to Guyana from the coast of West Africa to work on sugar plantations during the era of the Atlantic slave trade. Coming from a wide array of backgrounds and enduring conditio ...

. The economy of the village is based on

subsistence farming Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no su ...

and logging. The village has a health centre, and a primary school, but no secondary school. Baracara can be only accessed by boat from the river. As of 2015, the village has no local government. In 2018, the village received access to the telephone network and Internet. The village has Scottish Presbyterian, Adventist and Pentecostal churches.

Maroonage in Guyana

Unlike neighbouring

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

where tribes like the Ndyuka and

Saramaka The Saramaka, Saamaka or Saramacca are one of six Maroon peoples (formerly called "Bush Negroes") in the Republic of Suriname and one of the Maroon peoples in French Guiana. In 2007, the Saramaka won a ruling by the Inter-American Court of Hum ...

established autonomous territories, escaped slaves in Guyana were hunted by the local

Amerindian The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the Am ...

tribes for reward. The incentive was very successful: on 5 May 1764, after the

Berbice slave uprising The Berbice slave uprising was a slave revolt in Guyana that began on 23 February 1763Cleve McD. Scott"Berbice Slave Revolt (1763)" in Junius P. Rodriguez, ''Encyclopedia of Slave Resistance and Rebellion'', Vol. 1, Westport, Ct: Greenwood Press, 2 ...

, the post holder at Courantyne, near present-day

Orealla Orealla (or Orealla Mission) is an Indigenous community in the East Berbice-Corentyne Region of Guyana, on the Courantyne River, approximately south of Crabwood Creek and north of Epira, located at , altitude 11 metres. south-east on the o ...

, reported that he had paid out ƒ 1,074 for captured slaves, and ƒ 1,080 for 180 cut-off hands of killed slaves. In 1740, Thomas Hildebrand was given permission to look for

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

in the Blue Mountains using slaves. The hard work and rough treatment resulted in six deaths among the slaves. The next year, a group of mining slaves escaped to Creole Island on the

Cuyuni River The Cuyuni River is a South American river and a tributary of the Essequibo River. It rises in the Guiana Highlands of Venezuela, where it descends northward to El Dorado, and turns eastward to meander through the tropical rain forests of the Cu ...

. The location was too difficult to conquer, therefore a deal was negotiated and concluded on 8 February 1742. The slaves would be freed, and never had to work in the mines, if they promised to perform a fixed amount of work on the plantations. Three slaves who did not accept the offer were hunted and killed by the local Amerindians.

References

Bibliography

* {{Settlements in Guyana Populated places in East Berbice-Corentyne Maroon settlements